Overcoming Business Capital Inadequacy and Resilience Implications for the Urban Street Vendors’ Operations in Morogoro Municipality, Tanzania.
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College of Business Education (CBE)
Abstract
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Literature on urban street vending business, portrays vendors as powerless victims of inadequate business capital
highlighting mainly their inability to cope with this threat. Using the case study of the urban street vendors in
Morogoro Municipality-Tanzania, this paper maintains that urban street vendors are not simply passive victims of
inadequate business capital but also mobilise various capacities of coping with the threat. The paper analyses
Business capital situation and its resilience implications on the urban street vendors’ operations in Morogoro
Municipality-Tanzania. It specifically, ascertains the problem of Capital Inadequacy amongst the vendors,
determines the street vendors’ capacities to cope with the threat and recommends factors for enhancing such
capacities. The multi-layered social resilience framework and qualitative approach were utilised drawing on 100
in-depth interviews with the vendors, five focused group discussions (FGD), observations and a review of secondary
information. Findings showed that, on the one hand, street vendors managed to develop reactive and less proactive
capacities of coping with inadequate capital threat mainly based on the individual, household, community level and
to a lesser degree national levels. On the other hand, street vendors coping capacities were impeded by their lack of
knowledge about financial institutions, financing procedures, business skills and training, limited access to credit
institutions and knowledge in using them. Moreover, vendors hugely lacked support from meso, national and
international levels necessary for coping with the inadequate capital. These factors should be considered in
supporting the vendors to more competently cope with inadequate business capital. These findings shed light on
alternative ways of understanding and alleviating threats related to inadequate business capital among the urban
street vendors mainly in Morogoro Municipality- Tanzania.
Keywords
Business Capital, resilience, urban street vendors, business sustainability, capacity building.